This one-day symposium honored Herman Winick's championing of synchrotron radiation since he came to Stanford in the 1970s to lead the technical design of what was then known as the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project. It took place the day before the SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting and included speakers discussing Herman's contributions including development of insertion devices and free electron lasers as well as his activities in human rights and the development of synchrotron sources around the world. The program included the following speakers: Ewan Paterson, Seb Doniach, Claudio Pellegrini, Jo Stohr, Andy Sessler, Efim Gluskin, Soichi Wakatsuki, John Schmerge and Artie Bienenstock.

Quotes

I wish you another healthy decade or two. With your energy and enthusiasm, by the time you really retire, every country in the world will have at least one synchrotron.- Alp Ercan

I would like to mention here the leadership you exerted as a true world citizen, and an ambassador of the human value of science as a vehicle for a better world, enlightened by reason. We need many people of this kind; and this is one of the reasons for which I wish you a long and healthy life, in which you should continue to spread this message in all parts of the world.- Massimo Altarelli

It was in 1977 when I was planning a sabbatical at Stanford. I was going to work on DELCO at SPEAR, but I also wanted to learn about synchrotron radiation. (I was getting interested in X-ray optics, and NSLS was being built at BNL). I asked my host and grad school classmate Stan Wojcicki about the best way. He mentioned that there is this guy living on his street. He was the one to introduce us. You very graciously took me under your wings, and by the summer of 1979 I had an approved proposal and a grad student by the name of Harvey Rarback. You assigned a young postdoc by the name of Piero Pianetta to help us novices, and he went out of his way to make sure that we had a great experience - that was the start of our career in x-ray microscopy.- Kirz Janos

For me, Herman has been that who welcomed me as (maybe) the first post-doc at SSRP (with also Seb) , helped me to settle in Palo Alto and contributed much with Renée to make for us this stay unforgettable. He probably will remember that he lent us a trailer and a camping stuff, and we could visit then most of California. So he is the image of a man, generous, fighting spirit, 95% of his time in good mood.- Pierre Lagarde

Herman came to South Africa on several subsequent occasions, participating in conferences and schools, to support the promotion of the use of light sources by South African scientists and the eventual construction of an own facility in South Africa. An officially-recognised synchrotron committee has come into existence here, and I believe that Herman was, through his efforts, involvement and interest, significantly instrumental in bringing this about. His latest contribution to what I like to call the "South African Synchrotron Initiative", or "SASI", was when he attended a government-sponsored planning workshop in Irene, near Pretoria, in December last year, 2011. Again, he provided important input to the discussions. Herman is highly regarded in light source circles here in South Africa. May he long be with us to give us the benefit of his energy and knowledge.- Tony Joel

I am sure that I speak for the whole community of Israeli synchrotron users (which now includes two Nobel Laureates: Ada Yonath and Danny Schechtman) in thanking you for your indispensible contribution to the SESAME project, for the wisdom, efforts, and hard work you invested in starting all of us (some had to be dragged by their ears !) on this project. This idea, which looked so preposterously unimaginable at the outset has become a living and flourishing entity, an island of peace, collaboration and science in a part of the world where these are rare to nonexistence. - Moshe Deutsch

We are greatly indebted to Prof. Winick for his guidance and support in the development of SSRF. He has been on the committee panel and chaired our SSRF international review meetings from 1996 to 2009, and has helped nurturing many of our young scientists and engineers in the past decade. He helped SSRF to succeed from design to user operation. Well, if there is anything that SSRF feels proud of, Prof Winick certainly has a part in it. His commitment and devotion to scientific research and facility development have always been a great source of inspiration to our SSRF colleagues.- Zhentang Zhao